What's next for Sotomayor? Questions and answers

WASHINGTON 
The process for Sonia Sotomayor, a judge on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City, to be the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice is just beginning. Some questions and answers:

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Q: What's next for Sotomayor, now that Obama has tapped her for the Supreme Court?

A: Sotomayor will begin setting up meetings with the senators whose votes she needs to get confirmed to the court. She will be interviewed privately by Senate leaders and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Cynthia Hogan, Vice President Joe Biden's chief counsel, will help shepherd her through the confirmation process. Sotomayor will be given a written questionnaire to complete for the Judiciary Committee before confirmation hearings begin.

Q: What happens at those meetings with senators?

A: She will be asked questions about the law as senators try to figure out what kind of justice she would be. The nominee sometimes is given hints of questions or the actual questions that a senator will ask at the hearings, if the senator sits on the Judiciary Committee. The nominee rarely speaks publicly after those meetings, but senators often relate snippets of those chats.

Q: Will the nominee answer questions from the public?

A: Historically, the only time the public hears the Supreme Court nominee speak is at the White House when the president announces his choice, at the Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing and again when the nominee is sworn in as a justice.

Q: What questions will be on that public questionnaire?

A: The questionnaire is crafted by the Judiciary Committee. The questionnaires given to the last two people to make it to the Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, featured mostly questions about their personal and work history, as well as their legal and academic achievements. A similar questionnaire is expected to be given to Sotomayor.

Q: Were there any substantial legal questions on the public questionnaire?

A: The only substantial legal question asked to Roberts and Alito in the public questionnaire was their opinion of judicial activism, which is broadly understood as judges intervening in the business of elected legislatures and executives. In 1991, Sotomayor answered a similar question on her questionnaire for her first judicial nomination. "Because judicial power is limited by Article III of the Constitution, judges should seek only to resolve the specific grievance, ripe for resolution, of the parties before the court and within the law as written and interpreted in precedents," she said. "Intrusion by a judge upon the functions of the other branches of government should only be done as a last resort and limitedly."

Q: When will the substantial legal questions – seeking opinions on issues like abortion, gay marriage, the relationship between the church and the state and others – be asked?

A: Those questions will come during private meetings with senators and during the Judiciary Committee's hearing.

Q: Will we find out what the nominee thinks about the hot-button issues of the day through these questions?

A: Probably not. Nominees historically refuse to answer questions on issues that may come before the Supreme Court. That way, nominees argue, they can't be accused of prejudging any issue. Given the number of issues that the Supreme Court may deal with in the future, it also allows them to avoid giving any answer that may sway a vote in the Senate against them. A nominee's job is to get confirmed, which usually involves saying nothing to the Senate that is particularly attention-grabbing, out of character or reflecting anger or lack of preparation.

Q: Then how do senators figure out what a nominee truly thinks about things?

A: This is why such attention is placed on a nominee's previous writings, speeches, actions and opinions. Senators will likely take up to a month looking at Sotomayor's writings and legal work, including opinions as a federal trial and appellate judge, and her work at the New York County district attorney's office and as a private attorney.

Q: When are hearings expected to begin?

A: The White House wants Sotomayor sitting on the court shortly after Labor Day, so she can participate with other justices in choosing what cases to consider when the Supreme Court term begins Oct. 5. To meet that schedule, confirmation hearings would have to be held in July and the full Senate would have to vote on her confirmation before it recesses at the end of the first week in August. That's 74 days from Obama's announcement. It took 73 days for Justice Stephen Breyer to be confirmed and 50 days for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Roberts was nominated as a justice, renominated as chief justice and confirmed in 72 days. Alito was nominated and confirmed in 92 days.